Edgartown, Massachusetts (CNN) – National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden tells CNN that U.S. policy on ransom for hostage takers is clear. She said Thursday that it "does not grant concessions to hostage takers.”

“Doing so would only put more Americans at risk of being taken captive," she said.

(CNN) - With much of the focus in Washington centered on foreign policy issues, the White House is touting a domestic issue that’s been central component of the Democrats’ messaging in 2014 - raising the federal minimum wage.

The administration released Tuesday a report entitled: “A Year of Action: Progress Report on Raising the Minimum Wage.” The 11-page document highlights some of the steps taken by state and local leaders and those in the business community to boost the wage to $10.10 an hour, the rate called for by President Barack Obama in his 2013 State of the Union address.

Washington (CNN) - Four decades after President Richard Nixon resigned, a slight majority of Americans still consider Watergate a very serious matter, a new national survey shows. But how serious depends on when you were born.

The CNN/ORC International poll's release comes one day before the 40th anniversary of Nixon's resignation on August 9, 1974. With the Watergate scandal escalating, the second-term Republican president had lost much of his political backing, and he faced almost certain impeachment and the prospects of being removed from office by a Democratic-dominated House and Senate.

Washington (CNN) - President Barack Obama will participate in a full day of discussion with African leaders Wednesday, turning the conversation to "overall prosperity" in the third and final day of the African Leaders Summit in Washington, D.C.

A White House official told CNN that the President will highlight the "complex security challenges" African countries face and how the United States can support them. The panel discussion is focused on "Peace and Regional Stability," one of three in which Obama will participate at the U.S. State Department Wednesday.

Washington (CNN) — Planning and executing a White House dinner for one foreign leader is hard enough — for every perfectly arranged place setting is a sari-wearing party crasher or a recently separated French president.

The careful display of protocol will only be multiplied Tuesday when fifty African leaders — in town for an historic summit convened by President Barack Obama — arrive at the White House for a formal dinner.

Battle-tested White House staffers have been busy ensuring the menu (tomato soup, aged beef) and entertainment (Lionel Richie) align with rules of etiquette and diplomacy that dictate these kinds of events.

To wit: servers are prepared to identify who will drink wine, and who will abstain because their Islamic faith forbids it.

Kansas City, Missouri (CNN) – Days before Congress' summer break begins, President Barack Obama used a Wednesday morning speech here to lambast Republicans who are preparing to sue him rather than take action on some of his agenda items.

“Stop being mad all the time,” Obama chided Republicans during rowdy, campaign-style remarks. “Stop just hatin’ all the time.”FULL POST

Washington (CNN) – If lawmakers delay taking action now on climate change it could cost taxpayers exponentially more in the future to deal with the effects of a warming planet, the White House is warning Tuesday.

A report from President Barack Obama's administration says the costs of mitigating carbon emissions will rise 40% per decade unless something is done now to stem the outpouring of pollutants scientists say are causing global warning.

(CNN) – In yet another sign that Congress will leave town next week without addressing the influx of young migrants at the southern border, a senior White House official acknowledged there are major doubts that lawmakers will approve President Barack Obama's request for emergency funding to deal with the crisis.

"Alarming if Congress leaves for the August recess without acting," the official told reporters ahead of the visit of three Central American presidents to the White House on Friday.